Losing weight!

[deletemyaccount]

Hey guys, I have a serious problem regarding weight. I have been following the raw zero carb diet for about two weeks and I have lost about 5 pounds already despite my intention to gain some healthy weight and resolve some sleeping problems that I was having on the Primal Diet.

i have been on the Primal Diet for about six months and have lost about 30 pounds despite eating tremendous amounts of food, but very low carb. So I've decided to switch to zero carb after reading some information that "The Bear" and people on this forum wrote about zero carb diet.

I'm 24 years old and I'm 5'11, and weight about 56 kg weight 120 pounds.

Here's my daily menu and the more I eat the more weight I seem to lose:

Meal 1: 1/2 to 1 lb. of salmon
Meal 2: 1 lb. of ribye steak, lamb chops, or ground lamb
Meal 3: 1/2 to 1 lb. salmon
Meal 4: 1/2 to 1 lb. chicken, turkey, or fish

All of my meals were eaten with an avocado before switching to zero carb. That's when I've cut out the carbs from the juices that I was having, and increased my meat in each of the meals from 1/2 lb. to 1 lb. in order to see some positive results since I'm also a college student and I'm quite active, walking, and weight lifting 3 times per week.

I don't think that I can eat anymore meat than I'm currently eating, and I'm not feeling very strong since I'm losing weight instead of gaining it. What would you guys recommend. i haven't touched fruit ever since I've switched from cooked paleo over a year ago to a raw food animal diet.

Should I add some papaya and pineapple to my meats to gain weight and then go back to zero carb? Any advice would be apprecited.

[Nation]

that's alot of fish you're eating! Ditch the fish, eat 2 lbs of lamb or beef, you will gain weight for sure.

[ys]

Obviously you are having problems somewhere in your digestive system.  No one in this forum can give answers why, only speculations.

For start I would do lab analysis on stool to see if there is something there that may shed some light.

You need to figure out the root cause of malabsoption and fix it, stuffing yourself with even more food is obviously not the answer.

Everyone's bodies are very different so I would refrain to ask for advice from general forum population.  Find someone who is in similar condition as you are and share experiences.

I would do less weight lifting.  I find that 5-10 min of high intensity workout is enough to slowly grow muscle mass.  I am a hardgainger like you, 118-120 at 5ft7. I used to do heavy lifting for 1-2 h like bench presses and similar.  None of it helped to gain muscle, instead it gave me sore muscles that took days to recover.

I will post workout video shortly in Daily workout thread.

[MoonStalkeR]

Too much lean protein from fish and poultry, you simply need to add more fat.

How is your energy level?

[Ouchburns]

Thats a lot of meat my man. If you eat 2lbs of meat a day and add in a dozen eggs, you should see healthy weight gain and an energy boost. If you do not, I would suspect some sort of issue with your digestive system.

[deletemyaccount]

I don't have any energy for my workouts, and I'm not sure if it's too much walking 1 to 2 hours per day or the fact that I'm just not suited for a zero carb diet. My digestion is fine, I just don't have the appetite to eat more eat, if I stopped doing cardio, I wouldn't have any appetite at all to eat all this meat.

[miles]

Are you doing exercise soon after eating meat?

[ys]

I'm not sure if it's too much walking 1 to 2 hours per day

no, it is not too much, sounds about right.
i thought you were weight lifting 3 times a week

I'm quite active, walking, and weight lifting 3 times per week.

what's the reason you gave up carbs?

[MoonStalkeR]

I don't have any energy for my workouts, and I'm not sure if it's too much walking 1 to 2 hours per day or the fact that I'm just not suited for a zero carb diet. My digestion is fine, I just don't have the appetite to eat more eat, if I stopped doing cardio, I wouldn't have any appetite at all to eat all this meat.

This is probably due to the same reason. An easy way to balance your protein/fat intake is by calories. Try to have fat make up around 75% calories and protein 25%, a site you could use is http://nutritiondata.self.com/ (type food into search box) although I'm not sure how accurate it is.

[dsohei]

so, what was your reason in the first place to not eat any carbs?
because it seems to me like you just said that you cut out all carbs and have poor results.
yeah, maybe youre not eating enough fat, but maybe some healthy carbs are good for you specifically.
(no one shout that bs that theres's no such thing as healthy carbs ok

[TylerDurden]

There is a transition period where one does badly re exercise while on raw zero carb. For some people this is a permanent state. So, if this poor physical performance continues constantly without cease, you should really be incorporating more raw carbs. Besides, raw carbs do seem to add on some weight.

[Josh]

Yeh, it's not an all or nothing thing...why not add carbs until you're better adapted then try reducing them.

[deletemyaccount]

I eat plenty of fatty meat, but I just don't have the energy like I've had a year ago when I was eating carbohydrates. I basically cut out all of the carbs out of my diet after reading all of the benefits that people have on raw zero carnivorous diet and because I'm an avid health and nutrition fanatic, I know that there are no essential carbohydrates.

Therefore, I wanted to reap all of the benefits and went on the paleo diet, and about a year ago I've found out about the Primal Diet by Aajonus Vonderplanitz. After cutting all of the carbs out, I've started losing weight despite eating plenty of food. I don't wanna start eating carbs again because of all the information that I know about insulin and fructose etc. Plus, I love meat and I'm feeling great. It's just that lack of energy in the gym and the insomnia that sucks. That's why I'm constantly wondering if my body truly requires carbs to feel good.

I'm half Italian and half Czech, and I was an elite ice hockey player all of my life. Always very active and healthy. Used to the typical bodybuilding diet from about 20 to 23 (currently 24). Overeating with brown rice, cooked, meat, fish, cottage cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables and never managed to put on any serious weight. The most I weighed was 180 at 5-11 and it was all muscle.

Now I'm suppose to be on the healthiest diet for the human race, feel strong etc. That's why I'm concerned because the more meat I eat the less I seem to weight.

Should I just stick to eating this way to see if my body takes longer to adapt?

Are avocados prohibited on the carnivorous zero carb diet? I was thinking about adding some avocados to the diet as a form of fat. I know that one avocado has about 13 grams of carbs but 11 of them are fiber and plenty of extra calories.

What do you guys think?

[ys]

I'm an avid health and nutrition fanatic

this is your problem.  they say your own mind is your worst enemy.  welcome to Yuri's club.

[miles]

Do you try to do exercise soon after eating meat?

[deletemyaccount]

Do you try to do exercise soon after eating meat?

I wait at least 2 hours before I go to the gym.

How much meat do you guys eat per day?

I'm only 120 and eat over 2 pounds everyday, does anyone here more and still have problems with their weight?

[miles]

Well, when I started eating raw meat, I would feel like I had no energy, Because I was used to eating cooked meat several times in a day, so whenever I would exercise, I would have not long eaten. With raw meat, if I would try to exercise after eating within a few hrs I would feel like I had no energy... So I started to eat only one meal, and more in that meal, and leave many hours between eating and exercise, or eat after doing exercise. Then there was no problem with energy, and I was much stronger than I had been before.

I was also losing weight initially, and not having appetite for meat. This was because I was exercising when there was still meat in my system(also I did not choose good, fresh meat in the beginning but that was besides this point). You should allow your body to be done with the meat, before doing exercise... This is how it was/is for me anyway. I would more happily go a day without eating, than to eat meat before I think I may need to exert myself, and I can comfortably do that, and then when I am in a position of comfort, just eat more meat in one go.

There may, however, be some other factor in this. Maybe the problem is that if we do not eat the whole animal, we need something in the plants instead. Maybe that's why I really need to wait, because with certain nutrients missing, maybe my body takes longer.. I don't know. =/ I also eat grain-finished meat.

Still, I feel better than I have eating any other way. I have had some leaves and other vegetables recently though, since I started thinking that there may be something missing... What I'd really like to do though would be to eat whole wild animals...

Disclaimer: This stuff is just anecdotal, and though with every change that I've made and kept I have had improvements, I still have some negatives remaining..

[Josh]

I eat plenty of fatty meat,
 .....
Should I just stick to eating this way to see if my body takes longer to adapt?
What do you guys think?

I think that 2 weeks is far too soon to tell if you can adapt or not. If you look back in Lex Rooker's journal he describes his adaption period changing from 70/30 to 80/20 ratios on zero carb and even that took a while.

The body needs to have a higher density of mitochondria to get more energy from fatty acids...so presumably every time you change to more fatty acids your body has to adapt more.

You might as well try what miles said it might help. My suggestions are either stick it out for 3 months and see if you start to feel better if you can take the low energy, or else add some carbs back in and keep training which is what I'm doing. Becoming very cardiovascular fit will help make mitochondria either through high intensity training or half marathon type times and then you may be able to reduce carbs further.

IMO you need to measure what you eat and work out the calorie ratio of fat/protein. Maybe once you adapt there's flexibility but until then you need to be more sure of what you're eating.

[klowcarb]

I use Fitday to track everything. I eat exactly what I write, as I am very active (lifter, hiker) etc. and want to eat enough. I'm not interested in eating instinctively. I have gotten my body the way I want by eating ZC and being active and tracking. That said, it is such an easy and enjoyable life!